Abstract

MARTINS MORAES, Alex. Agrarian struggle and desire equipment in the context of the reactivation of the Uruguayan sugar industry. Cuad. antropol. soc. [online]. 2021, n.53, pp.199-215.  Epub May 06, 2021. ISSN 1850-275X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.34096/cas.i53.7521.

This article analyzes how the agrarian demands of a rural workers’ union in northern Uruguay were managed within the framework of a government development policy, which attempted to convert its beneficiaries into efficient sugarcane producers. From a perspective that combines the thinking of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari with Marxian analysis of credit systems, I examine the conflicting convergence between agrarian struggle and rural development, conceptualizing it as unstable ‘collective equipment’ [équipement collectif] that captures social desire. Through participant observation and through interacting with the beneficiaries of development policies, I examine the economic consequences of desire equipment and point to its conditions of (im)possibility, as well as to the ways of overcoming it politically. I conclude by reflecting on the primacy of desire over any capture process that aims to organize and functionalize it.

Keywords : Agrarian struggle; Development policy; Desire; Marxism; Uruguay.

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